Bridgeton star Simone Ashley has revealed the unlikely inspiration behind the show’s sex scenes – snails.
The actor explained that prior to shooting the Netflix period drama’s intimate moments, she and her castmates would study the movement of the shelled mollusks when they were mating to help inspire the sensuality of a scene.
Speaking on The Envelope podcast (via Digital Spy), Simone, who plays Kate Sharma, said: “We explored the movement of different animals to kind of portray different paces or different sexualities or how sensual something could be.
“For example, we look to how snails mate, and when snails mate, they actually produce a plasma that intertwines. So if it was a really sensual, slow kind of scene, we’d be like, oh, it’s like the snail. And it’s super like the plasma, like falling like honey.”
Simone said the cast also examined how dogs and chimpanzees’ mate too.
She continued: “It’s very fast-paced and a different kind of style. So this kind of scene, we’re going to make it very funny and quirky and just like silly and like, let’s think of like, this animal. So we would kind of focus on the other things around and then treat it like a dance and make it very character-driven.”
Simone recently told of how she and co-star Jonathan Bailey, who plays Kate’s love interest Anthony Bridgerton, toasted their sex scenes with champagne after filming was over.
Jonathan also teased what it was like to film the intimate moments, revealing how one unlikely prop was used to make them more convincing.
Bridgerton is streaming on Netflix now. The Envelope podcast is also available on podcast platforms.